The Power of Influence

Daniel chapter 3, verse 1, Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits. He set it up in the plain Dura, the province of Babylon. Okay, then he gathers all the princes and that together.

Just for the sake of time, please come down to verse number four. Then a herald cried aloud to you and his commanded old people, nations and languages, that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet, the flute, the harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the golden image of Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. And whoso falleth not down and worshipeth that same hour will be cast in the midst of a burning, fiery furnace.

Therefore, at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all the kinds of music, and there's six instruments there by the way, if you want to link that as some have with the number six, but all the people, nations, languages fell down, worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Wherefore, at that time, certain Chaldeans came near and accused the Jews. That's who they're really after saying this today.

They spake and said to the king, Nebuchadnezzar, old king, live forever. The old king has made a decree that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music shall fall down and worship the golden image. And whoso falleth not down and worshipeth, that he should be cast into the midst, into the midst of a burning, fiery furnace.

There are certain Jews whom thou has set over the affairs of the province of Babylon. In other words, to put the finger in his face and say, you're really to blame for this. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, these men, O king, have not regarded thee.

They serve not by gods nor worship the golden image, which thou has set up. And Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, is it true? O Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, do not ye serve by gods nor worship the golden image, which I have set up.

Now at that point, at that point, those three men were given an opportunity under the heated breath of that king to change their mind. They could have said, no, we'll bow. But all but over.

But they will not. They will not bow. Verse 15, now if it be ready.

Now at what time ye hear, and it goes over the estimates again, and down the latter part of the verse, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning, fiery furnace. And who is that God that shall deliver you to my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, we are not careful to answer thee in the matter. If it be so, our God, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace.

And he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, okay, notice how that contrasts verse 17 at the beginning. If so, if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou has set up.

Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury. The form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And notice he's come to them in a very favorable way, just hoping they would change their minds, but they don't.

Therefore he spake and commanded that they should be heat the furnace one seven times more than it was want to be heated. And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to cast them into the fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, their hoses, their hats, and their other garments, and were cast in the midst of the fiery furnace.

Therefore, because the king's command was urgent and the furnace heating exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell down, bound, bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. And Nebuchadnezzar, the king was astonished and rose up with haste and spake and said unto his counselors, did not we cast three men bound in the midst of the fire? They answered and said to the king, true, O king.

He answered and said, lo, I see four men loose and resting their loose, walking in the midst of the fire and they have no hurt. And the form of the fourth is like the son of God. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spake and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, come hither.

Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth of the midst of the fire. The princes, the governors, the captains, and the king's counselors being gathered together saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of the fire that passed upon them. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him and have changed the king's word and yielded their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any God except their own God.

And of course, we know that as you come to the latter part of the chapter, there is some promotion for them. Two little expressions I'd like to leave with you this afternoon, just at the close of this first section. In their words, and it is this, if not, and if so, okay? If not, and if so.

In other words, they were not holding God to something that he wasn't capable of doing or anything that would be against his will. Daniel is one of the five, if you like, post-exile prophets, as we know them, Ezekiel, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. Daniel is one of the five.

He is the fifth one. He actually spans the lives of four kings, as we have right here in this chapter, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius, and Cyrus. So it's a considerable amount of time.

And I realized that when you get to chapter six, he's a much older man than maybe in chapter three and with these men, and of course, he's not with them at this time. What I see in that is the tremendous influence, the tremendous influence of one man over three men. You get the opposite with Peter when he says, I go fishing.

It's his influence that takes six in the wrong direction. Here's a good man and it took his influence to take three in our right direction. So I think there's something to be said for us as believers.

There's something human on the human side that we are far easier led astray than we are kept in the path in which we should go. However, having said that, it's interesting, the word Jesus refers to Daniel as a prophet. Very honorable.

Also referred to Jonah as a prophet, and they both were prophets. What a contrast. Of course, there's contrasts and comparisons with the two of them.

Daniel is brilliant intellectually. Okay, chapter one tells us something of that. But you know, he was a man that was more interested in being clean, being clean.

Than being clever. God is more concerned about the purity of our lives and the preservation of it. In contrast to what ever is offered out there in the world.

So among these selected were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, of course, and Azariah. Luckily in their teens, or maybe a little later on that, I take it that we speak of the Hebrew children. I hardly think they were children.

They may have been just a little older than that. But they made a defining decision to stand up for what is right. Rather than bow down to what is wrong.

We prepared to do that brethren? With what we are hearing this morning about doctrine and teaching and the different passages. Are we prepared to stand up for what is right? Or bow down to what is wrong? I think I mentioned this maybe at Heisville. I'm not sure.

I would far sooner conclude my days standing like a Moses. Than to conclude them caving in like an Aaron. Sad to say there's just a little too much of that in my gen.

Let me just speak for my generation today. I am alarmed. I am concerned brothers and sisters.

Maybe it shouldn't be my concern. Maybe it's something I just have to leave with the Lord. But some that stood so well for so long.

And suddenly there's a change. Maybe that's not really my subject this afternoon. These Hebrews did not know what their God would do.

Now I'm gonna go slow. I gotta slow this up so you get. They did not know what their God would do.

But they knew what their God could do. That made the difference. Okay.

That's why you got the language that I quoted to you here right at the beginning. All right. They knew what they could do.

But they also knew what they would not do. Okay. They knew they could just go with the order of the day.

Come on. There's a lot going on. There's that music and the emotional goal in the back.

They knew what they could do. But they knew what they would do. Have it come to their God.

They knew, didn't know what he would do. But they knew what he could do. So we find the two of those coming together really in their experience.

If not, two of the smallest yet biggest words in the chapters. If not, what are they saying? They did not doubt his ability and did not presume upon his will. You know, I may not always know what God is going to do.

Do I need to? I think this lesson tells us something. I don't need to know that. I may not know what God is going to do.

And if he somehow reveals or shows that to me, that's one thing. Didn't always do that with the patriarchs or the prophets and so on. But I don't need to know that.

But just to have that absolute confidence, of course, in God. So there's one word that I would write over chapter three of my writing. One word over, maybe two or three.

Power of influence. Influence. Tremendous to see men like this in a natural world.

We would say they must have made Daniel proud. Daniel didn't need to give a note back that he didn't bow. You know that? He knew they wouldn't bow.

He knew they wouldn't. Do I have that same confidence in you, brother? To know that you will not bow. You will not give in.

You haven't all these years, and you will not give in. Daniel had that confidence when, of course, it came to these men. Younger men, obviously, than them were of his age.

However, more than that. You know, when it comes to this fire and being cast into the midst of the fire, I'm just going to skip over a lot that maybe I would normally take out of this, but just for the sake of time. It's interesting where they're cast.

They're cast right into the midst of the fire. Just go through it. Of course, I've highlighted it in my Bible.

The different times is the thought of the midst. There is no guarantee that he was going to take them out of it, but they were sure he would take them through it. If you could have tapped on their shoulder and said, listen, just bear in this, hunker down.

This king is actually going to be saved by the time this is done. They didn't know that. God knew that.

How God was going to deal with that king. It was likely the last one on the face of planet earth they ever thought would have to break and bow before the only true God. But Nebuchadnezzar doesn't.

It's interesting to think of the power and the confidence that they had in him. Just think of this king, Nebuchadnezzar. You know, it was the German philosopher, Nietzsche, however you want to pronounce it, declared one time, he said, if there is a God, I cannot bear not to be that God.

Boy, men's hearts, whether it is Napoleon, go through some of these old historic names. They wanted to be God. Here are three that were subject and realized there was only one true God.

That was the God they were linked with. That's the God that they would worship. That's the God that they would praise.

So things start to move. Just come to the scene. First of all, I want you to think of emotion.

The first attack to take believers down is quite often on an emotional side. Emotional. In gospel preaching, I worked with a man that taught me something right.

And he's taught me this. He said, when you are preaching the gospel, do not aim at the emotions. Otherwise, all you will get is a conversion that is emotional, won't last.

Aim at the conscience, like Paul did. And they're convicted. So the world is the emotional scene.

We have a religious world out there today, and it is filled with an emotional scene. And in the evangelical world, it's the same. It's an emotional scene.

And very easily, a person is swept up in that. Just work your imagination. You've got one, so I just work it for a few minutes and just think of that big plane.

And, you know, you've got to whisper into the ear of Nebuchadnezzar, the words of the Lord Jesus. This is your hour in the power of darkness. All that music starts to blare and is literally going across the plain of Dura that day.

And the swing is on. All the chief men are there. All, anybody that was, everybody that was anybody was there.

Okay. And of all things, here's three young Hebrew men that say, no, we're not going to bow. We're just not going to do it.

No, they didn't advertise it. They weren't promoting it. In other words, they were not advertising some sort of inner rebellion.

But they weren't going to go along with it. They were not going to do it. In other words, emotion was not going to carry them away.

The English poet, William Conscrive, said these words. He said, music has the ability to charm the savage beast. Yet, he said, music at the same time will release the savage that's in the breast.

It'll do it. How'd they know that way back then? It's amazing what they knew. It's amazing.

The devil has never changed his tactics. And it would just like I say, you know, they just said, why not? What's the use? Who's going to know? Really, we're captives down here anyhow. What did they expect? They could have argued their way very easily on what they were prepared to do.

So could you. So could I. We could offer any kind or number of excuses to why we shouldn't do what we are doing. That would sound very good to a world out there, but would fly in the face of what is taught in this book.

So first of all, there was emotion. Then there was commotion. Okay.

Like I say, things are rolling. But these men, these are intelligent men. They've been set over the affairs of the province of Babylon.

That's why the Colossians, as they do and always did, come to him and say, you're to blame. You're the problem. That's why they're not down here.

Here's the real problem is you. So now he is under the gun. But there's something that as I read and reread chapter three, it tells me this.

This king knew they weren't going to bow. He knew they weren't going to give them another opportunity. See, you know, that tells me something that we should be.

What I may stand against, what I may say no to on this Saturday, I might not say no to next Saturday. Okay. In other words, notice the consistency, the consistency in these lives.

There's something to be said about consistency in a believer's life. Every aspect of it. Think of the Lord Jesus himself, the consistency in his life.

Go through the gospels as we've been hearing and just read and the consistency. Okay. All the things that happen in every hand and he just consistently moves on.

Let me say today and speak to older believers, believers here that are older have seen more than I've seen. We salute your consistent consistency in the things of God. May your tribe increase.

May the place that is vacant by your passing be filled with those of like heart. So there was promotion. No, it doesn't matter.

You know, we learn a lesson here and in chapter six. Okay. Regardless of what the world says, the promotion that comes at the end of the chapter, and I didn't read it all, teaches us a valuable lesson that you don't have to be like this world to get on in it.

Again, you do not have to be like this world to get on in it. They teach us that valuable lesson. I'm going to the end of, I'm going to come back to it in a minute.

But notice how they go and how they move. And they're still blessed. Hey, you know, as you read through the chapter, you think, well, this is it.

This is as far as it's going to go. It's all over for them now. No, not so.

Not so. I want to think very simply three things about the fire. Okay.

First of all, the force of the fire, who was found in the fire, and then the freedom in the fire. That might sound like a contradiction, but it's not. I'll come to that.

Okay. Remember Hebrews chapter 11, verse 34 says they quench the violence. The word there of course is dumas, the power.

They quenched the dumas. They quenched the violence. They quenched the power of that fire.

I think, I don't think I'd have to visit California, British Columbia to learn the tremendous power of fire. But these men quenched it. The writer of the Hebrews tells us that they escaped the age of the sword out of weakness were made strong.

Blacks valiant in flight turned the armies of the aliens. Violence is force. And so remember there's always a force that is associated with it.

So there was the force of the fire. They quenched the violence of the power. However did they do this? However did they do this? By their unshatterable and unmovable faith in God.

Nothing else. That was something in their lives that could not be daunted, dented or touched. Their absolute faith in what God would do.

Or before chapter four. Or before chapter four, one in the fiery furnace and the thought of worship. So the force of the fire found in the fire in the midst eight times.

You read that expression. In the midst. But look who they find in the furnace.

Who do they find in the midst? How does this human king know that it was the son of God? He says it's like under the son of God. I believe it was revealed to him. I don't think there's any other way he could know it.

And I know believers that have gone through a lot more than I've gone through yet. And in the midst of that fire they've enjoyed a divine presence that they never had before. I'm thinking of a young couple that I'm communicating with right now.

With a child that likely isn't going to make too great of an age. And you know, not only are they in love with their little child, but they realize it's likely going to grow to full maturity. But here's their words.

Here are their words. We would not have missed this for anything. Wonderful.

The birth of our other children. But now what they're facing, they said, we would not miss this for anything. But talk about the force of the fire being found in the fire.

So there are two places where they could fall down. Okay. They could fall down and worship or they could fall down in the midst of the fire.

It's interesting. They fell down in the midst of the fire. I think that's to be understood the way that they were found.

I was just thinking earlier today. That isn't whether it's the Babylonian system or the Philistine system. Bind them.

Bind them. Remember what they did with Samson? Bind them. What are they doing here? Bind those.

Bind them. They could escape, but bind them. They tried to bind them earlier to their traditions and their heathen ideas and their heathen worship.

Couldn't do. But we will bind them and we're going to put them into that fire. So we have what is found in the fire and the force of the fire.

I want to think of the freedom that was in the fire. Bands are gone. They're walking about freely in the midst of the fire.

They're not standing there like some of the pictures and they're bound together in the midst of the fire. They were maybe for a while, but not very long. God teaches me something.

No matter what the will of God is. If I bow to that, there's a freedom in it. Just the opposite to what the world says.

That looks at things that those of us that gather so narrowly in our thinking and that to the name of the Lord Jesus and in their terms, you can't do this, you can't do. Everything's so narrow. Oh, it's so wide.

It is not a bondage, brethren. It's a wonderful liberty. And here they are walking around in the midst of the fire, if you like.

That must have been something for them to actually witness. But you know, there's something tells me that only the Nebuchadnezzar didn't think, but these Chaldeans, something tells me they did. They'd seen enough of these to know these men are not going to bow.

They're not going to go down. Now, let me speak to even the younger people that are here today. Before God, human resolve will never do it.

But before the God before whom you live, resolve this in your heart that I will not bow to what that world has out there to offer to me and tempt me and so on. Interesting also, notice their coats weren't touched or singed. Their coats weren't touched or singed.

A very important lesson in that, at least there is for me. And you know, God knew they needed something to walk out of the fire with. Okay.

Now, wait a minute. Don't you put down Babylon's clothing. Achan must have thought it was all right.

There's a goodly Babylonish garment. But everything the Babylon had burned up, but they're fully clothed because they weren't wearing Babylon's clothing. Now, I know some go hard after me about this.

Listen, I was at a conference 12, 14 years ago. Okay. I knew him.

I only see it once in my life. Young fella started in. I think he wanted me to see it with a pink suit.

Okay. I did not have to ask him where he got it. Because if I wanted, I could have rolled back the collar.

And it would not said made in China. It would said made in Babylon. Seriously, the only fellow there.

Well, he said, he had his suit on, McCandless. Don't be too hard. But a pink suit.

That would not lasted long in this fire. More than that. The smell did not pass by.

The smell of the fire had not passed on them. It's interesting Esau. The smell of the field, how quickly he got on his garments.

Okay. Enough to deceive his father. He smells, though.

Why? Because he wore them to the field. Esau didn't have any, had no respect for garments. They were nothing to him.

The coat of sleeves and that of the firstborn or the Mahanti. That was his life. And it is filled with the smell of it.

Back before they were allowed to smoke in stores that I think you better. And would remember we'd stop at the store going to get a quart of milk something. You come out in the car.

Your wife, your wife would say, oh, man, the smell of that cigarette smoke and so on. Fortunately, we don't have that same challenges today. But listen, you cannot play in that world.

Without wearing a smell from it. It's not a fragrance. It's not an order.

But it reminds me of one who transverse this scene amongst all its defilement. And the 45th Psalm, which is true in the gospels is what it was written. All of thy garments.

All of thy garments. So a lesson that I learned in this. It's not easy to go in that world and escape without bearing its smell upon you.

Let the fragrance be upon you and the and the order thereof. I'm only smiling because I was in the lineup at a at a Tim Hortons for dressed up. My wife and I are going to meet you somewhere.

And a lady tapped me in the shoulder. She says, excuse me, she says, she kind of flustered. She said, it's kind of an embarrassing question.

Do you mind telling me what kind of fragrance you wear? I said, excuse me, I really don't know. I said, I got a friend of mine, John Meakin, that buys it for me. He comes from England.

He's not the guy that can afford that stuff from Herod's or wherever it is over there. But he says, I'll tell you what I do have here to give her a gospel track. Wedged out of it.

Okay. So, you know, in a practical sense, but in a spiritual sense, how much better when people come and say, hey, where do you go? You a Christian? You know why? They picked up a fragrance, but they don't this world. That's what these Hebrew ones were.

So one thing to remember, Babylon's clothes are fashionable, but they're flammable. They go up pretty quick. Sure.

What we wear, brothers and sisters, it sends a message. It's hard to hide at times. It sends a message.

And people usually dress accordingly to what kind of a message they want to send. Send a message. We're not wearing Galilean clothes today.

Okay. Or what they want in. Send a message that distinguishes you from the way that world dresses out there.

That's what I'm saying. So that's something I think that is committed. It's interesting that when you come to Nedab and Abihu, their coats aren't touched either.

How come? Carried out in their coats. How come their coats aren't destroyed? Tells you a lesson. That priestly order, in spite of what has happened, must continue.

Their coats here are not touched, which tells me this, that personal testimony must continue. And so let it be. And so it's quite a thing to think of these men now.

Here they are. You know, believers try to pressure you and unbelievers rather try to pressure you into their lifestyle and their manner of life and their manner of living. Not these.

They will stand. You know, God could have revealed to them who that, to that monarch and all of his darkness, who that person was. But it's interesting.

They had no mistake about it. No, they don't step back and say, oh, what are you doing here? Could I suggest this to you? It didn't surprise them. Whether they expected it or not, it did not surprise them that they had divine presence in the heat of the moment.

Brethren and sisters, whether it is in Ankeny or Alaska or wherever it might be, Christian testimony, those that seek to carry out the word of God as it should be, are being pushed, pushed to the fire as ever they were. It's not an easy moment. It's not an easy day.

There is so much outward pressure to get you to conform. Just like loosen up a little bit. You're taking it way too serious.

I think I told you at high school a year ago, I got a, I saw somebody here this morning. We got talking about it. An overseer sent me an email.

He said to me, you're McCandless. He said, you're sounding more like Elijah every day. I wrote him back.

He said, well, thank you so much. Oh, thank you so much. I have never had a compliment like that in my life.

Come on, did I ever mistake you for Elijah? Did you ever get mistaken for Elijah? No, I did. I said, that's a wonderful compliment. I told my wife.

I said, do you realize who you're married to? She said, tell me the rest of it. Well, I wrote him back. Funny, I never heard from him.

I said, let me tell you one thing about Elijah. He's the only man that we read of that wore a leather girdle. Not much elasticity there.

I wrote him back and said, you boys are wearing used bungee cords. And you know, you can go here or there. It doesn't really matter.

So I guess, like my daughter says to me, dad, I'm just so glad you make so many new friends because you keep losing old ones. That may happen to brothers and sisters. My time is up.

There's a lot more that can be said here. God help us for his glory, for his honor. These, these, these men didn't, didn't take it up unto themselves, but they were honoring God and what they're seeking to do.

And you're home as a housewife. In that Sunday school class, nobody else maybe knows that you're there. Remember what he wrote to the churches in the Revelation more than once? I know that works.

I know that works. God looked down and he saw those three. And he says, I know that works.

So where two or three, as we're reminded this morning, are in heaven being gathered together in his name, regardless of the fires, regardless of the persecution, you are assured that in the midst you have divine presence.